The Gujarat High Court on May 6 overturned life sentence of former BJP MP Dinu Solanki and six others in the 2010 murder of RTI activist Amit Jethwa, who was killed on SG highway in front of the High Court in 2010.
The court cited a “predetermined notion of conviction” in the lower court, which had convicted Mr. Solanki and others, and flaws in the CBI investigation.
Jethwa was killed after exposing alleged illegal mining by the BJP leader and his relatives in the Kodinar area where limestone is mined for building houses and as raw material for cement factories.
Observing that the trial court conducted proceedings with a ‘‘predetermined notion of conviction’‘, the High Court Division Bench of Justices A.S. Supehia and Vimal K. Vyas quashed the CBI court’s order sentencing Mr. Solanki and the six others to life imprisonment.
The CBI court had sentenced Mr. Solanki and six others to life imprisonment in 2019 and had ordered them to pay a fine of ₹15 lakh in the case of murder and criminal conspiracy.
After the trial court’s verdict, the High Court had suspended the life sentence of Mr. Solanki and his nephew Shiva Solanki, also convicted in the case. Mr. Dinu Solanki was Junagadh MP from 2009-14 and before that he was Kodinar MLA from 1998 to 2009.
In its judgment, the High Court said the case would be remembered as ‘‘an antithesis to ‘Satyamev Jayate’,‘‘ (truth alone triumphs) and observed that the investigation appears to be an eyewash from the inception.
‘Perfunctory, prejudiced’
‘’We reiterate that the entire investigation, right from the inception of the offence, appears to be perfunctory and prejudiced. The prosecution has failed to secure the confidence of the witnesses,’‘ the Bench said in its order, slamming the probe agency for not securing the witnesses who had turned hostile even after police protection.
Highlighting flaws in the CBI probe, the court came down on the Central agency and said it carried out “a slipshod and perfunctory investigation.”
“All efforts are made to see that the truth is buried forever; the perpetrators have succeeded in doing so. Evenly, the trial court has conducted the trial proceedings with a predetermined notion of conviction,” the Bench noted in its order.
Resultantly, the common judgment dated July 11, 2019, passed by the special judge, CBI court, whereby the accused have been convicted for the offence under Section 302 (murder) and Section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code, and sentenced, is quashed and set aside, the High Court order said.
